Uzbek is a Karluk languages spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official and national language of Uzbekistan and formally succeeded Chagatai, an earlier Karluk language endonymically called Türki or Türkçe, as the literary language of Uzbekistan in the 1920s.
According to the Joshua Project, Southern Uzbek and Standard Uzbek are spoken as a native language by more than 34 million people around the world, making Uzbek the second-most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish language. There are about 36 million Uzbeks around the world, and the reason why the number of speakers of the Uzbek language is greater than that of ethnic Uzbeks themselves is because many other ethnic groups such as Tajiks, Kazakhs, Russians who live in Uzbekistan speak Uzbek as their second language.
There are two major variants of the Uzbek language: Northern Uzbek, or simply "Uzbek", spoken in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and China; and Southern Uzbek, spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both Northern and Southern Uzbek are divided into many dialects. Uzbek and Uyghur language are sister languages and they constitute the Karluk languages or "Southeastern" branch of Turkic.
External influences on Uzbek include Arabic, Persian language, and Russian language. One of the most noticeable distinctions of Uzbek from other Turkic languages is the rounding of the vowel to under the influence of Persian language. Unlike other Turkic languages, vowel harmony is almost completely lost in modern Standard Uzbek, though it is still observed to some degree in its dialects, as well as in Uyghur.
Different dialects of Uzbek show varying degrees of influence from other languages such as Kipchak and Oghuz Turkic (for example, in grammar) as well as Persian (in phonology), which gives literary Uzbek the impression of being a mixed language.
In February 2021, the Uzbek government announced that Uzbekistan plans to fully transition the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic script script to a Latin script-based alphabet by 1 January 2023. Uzbekistan Aims For Full Transition To Latin-Based Alphabet By 2023, 12 February 2021 12:54 GMT, RadioFreeEurope Similar deadlines had been extended several times. , most institutions still use both alphabets.
The language is spoken by other ethnic groups outside Uzbekistan. The popularity of Uzbek media, including Uzbekfilm and RizanovaUz, has spread among the post-Soviet states, particularly in Central Asia in recent years. Since Uzbek is the dominant language in the Osh Region (and mothertongue of the city Osh), like the rest of Eastern, Southern and South-Eastern Kyrgyzstan (Jalal-Abad Region), the ethnic Kyrgyz people are, too, exposed to Uzbek, and some speak it fluently. This is a common situation in the rest of Central Asian republics, including: the Turkistan Region, northern Daşoguz Welaýat of Turkmenistan, Sughd and other regions of Tajikistan. This puts the number of L2 speakers of Uzbek at a varying 1–5 million speakers.
The Uzbek language has a special status in countries that are common destination for immigration for Uzbekistani citizens. Other than Uzbekistan and other Central Asian Republics, the ethnic Uzbeks most commonly choose the Russian Federation in search of work. Most of them however, are seasonal workers, whose numbers vary greatly among residency within the Russian Federation. According to Russian government statistics, 4.5 million workers from Uzbekistan, 2.4 million from Tajikistan, and 920,000 from Kyrgyzstan were working in Russia in 2021, with around 5 million being ethnic Uzbeks.
Estimates of the number of native speakers of Uzbek vary widely, from 35 up to 40 million. Ethnologue estimates put the number of native speakers at 33 million across all the recognized dialects. The Swedish national encyclopedia, Nationalencyklopedin, estimates the number of native speakers to be 38 million,"Världens 100 största språk 2007" ("The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007"), Nationalencyklopedin and the CIA World Factbook estimates 30 million. Other sources estimate the number of speakers of Uzbek to be 34 million in Uzbekistan, 4.5 million in Afghanistan, 1,630,000 in Pakistan, 1,500,000 in Tajikistan, about 1 million in Kyrgyzstan, 600,000 in Kazakhstan, 600,000 in Turkmenistan, and 300,000 in Russia.
The Uzbek language is taught in more than fifty higher education institutions around the world.
Uzbek (along with Uyghur) can be considered the direct descendant of Chagatai, the language of great Turkic Central Asian literary development in the realm of Chagatai Khan, Timur (Tamerlane), and the Timurid dynasty (including the early Mughal rulers of the Mughal Empire). Chagatai contained large numbers of Persian and Arabic . By the 19th century, it was rarely used for literary composition and disappeared only in the early 20th century.
Muhammad Shaybani ( – 2 December 1510), the first Khan of Bukhara, wrote poetry under the pseudonym "Shibani". A collection of Chagatai poems by Muhammad Shaybani is currently kept in the Topkapı Palace Museum manuscript collection in Istanbul. The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work, Bahr al-Khudā, written in 1508, is located in London.A.J.E.Bodrogligeti, «Muhammad Shaybanî’s Bahru’l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay», Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, vol.54 (1982), p. 1 and n.4
Shaybani's nephew Ubaydullah Khan (1486–1540) skillfully recited the Quran and provided it with commentaries in Chagatai. Ubaydulla himself wrote poetry in Chagatai, Classical Persian, and Arabic under the literary pseudonym Ubaydiy.B. V. Norik, Rol shibanidskikh praviteley v literaturnoy zhizni Maverannakhra XVI v. // Rakhmat-name. Sankt Petersburg, 2008, p.230
For the Uzbek political elite of the 16th century, Chagatai was their native language. For example, the leader of the semi-nomadic Uzbeks, Sheibani Khan (1451–1510), wrote poems in Chagatai.A.J.E.Bodrogligeti, «MuÌammad Shaybænî’s Bahru’l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay», Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, vol.54 (1982), p. 1 and n.4
The poet Turdiy (17th century) in his poems called for the unification of the divided Uzbek tribes: "Although our people are divided, but these are all Uzbeks of ninety-two tribes. We have different names – we all have the same blood. We are one people, and we should have one law. Floors, sleeves and collars – it's all – one robe, So the Uzbek people are united, may they be in peace."Turdy. Izbrannyye proizvedeniya. Tashkent, 1951, p.33
Sufi Allayar (1633–1721) was an outstanding theologian and one of the Sufism of the Khanate of Bukhara. He showed his level of knowledge by writing a book called Sebâtü'l-Âcizîn. Sufi Allayar was often read and highly appreciated in Central Asia.
The term Uzbek as applied to language has meant different things at different times.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Chagatai remained the main literary language in most of Central Asia, but it faced a phase of decay.Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan." Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies. p. 318. Comp. Glenn E. Curtis. Washington, D.C.: Division, 1997 Eventually, Chagatai was mostly referred to as the language of the , the settled Turkic-speaking populations of the Fergana Valley, although the definition of this term shifted through the decades. According to the Kazakh scholar Serali Lapin, who lived at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, "there is no special Sart language different from Uzbek".Bronnikova O. M., Sarty v etnicheskoy istorii Sredney Azii (k postanovke problemy) Etnosy i etnicheskiye protsessy. Moskva: Vostochnaya literatura, 1993, s. 153. Russian researchers of the second half of the 19th century, like L. N. Sobolev, believed that "Sart is not a special tribe, as many tried to prove. Sart is indifferently called both Uzbek and Tajik, who live in the city and are engaged in trade".Sobolev L. N. Geograficheskiye i statisticheskiye svedeniya o Zeravshanskom okruge (s prilozheniyem spiska naselonnykh mest okruga), Zapiski IRGO po otdeleniyu statistiki. SPb., 1874. T.4. S. 299. Prim. 1.
As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek", which Edward A. Allworth argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as Ali-Shir Nava'i an Uzbeks identity.
After the independence of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek government opted to reform Northern Uzbek by changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin in an attempt to stimulate the growth of Uzbek in a new, independent state. However, the reform never went into full application, and both alphabets are widely used, from daily uses to government publications and TV news. Uzbek language hasn't eclipsed Russian in the government sector since Russian is used widely in sciences, politics, and by the upper class of the country. However, the Uzbek internet, including Uzbek Wikipedia, is growing rapidly.
Despite the official status of the Latin script in Uzbekistan, the use of Cyrillic is still widespread, especially in advertisements and signs. In newspapers, scripts may be mixed, with headlines in Latin and articles in Cyrillic.
In 2019, an updated version of the Uzbek Latin alphabet was revealed by the Uzbek government, with five letters being updated; it was proposed to represent the sounds "ts", "sh", "ch", "oʻ" and "gʻ" by the letters "c", "ş", "ç", "ó" and "ǵ", respectively. This would have reversed a 1995 reform, and brought the orthography closer to that of Turkish alphabet and also of Turkmen alphabet, Karakalpak, Kazakh alphabets (2018 version) and Azerbaijani. In 2021, it was proposed to change "sh", "ch", "oʻ" and "gʻ" to "ş", "ç", "ō" and "ḡ". These proposals were not implemented.
In the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, in northern Afghanistan and in Pakistan, where there is an Uzbek minority, the Arabic-based script is still used. In the early 21st century, in Afghanistan, standardization, publication of dictionaries, and an increase in usage (for example in News agencies' website, such as that of the BBC) has been taking place.
Modern Latin alphabet | А а | B b | D d | Е е | F f | G g |
H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | М m | |
N n | О о | P p | Q q | R r | S s | |
Т t | U u | V v | X x | Y y | Z z | |
Oʻ oʻ | Gʻ gʻ | Sh sh | Ch ch | Ng ng |
Cyrillic alphabet | А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Ғ ғ | Д д | Е е |
Ё ё | Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Қ қ | |
Л л | М м | Н н | О о | П п | Р р | С с | |
Т т | У у | Ў ў | Ф ф | Х х | Ҳ ҳ | Ц ц | |
Ч ч | Ш ш | Ъ ъ | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
Modern Arabic alphabet | ا | ب | پ | ت | ث | ج | چ | ح |
خ | د | ذ | ر | ز | ژ | س | ش | |
ص | ض | ط | ظ | ع | غ | ف | ق | |
ک | گ | ل | م | ن | و | ه | ی |
In Uzbek, there are two main categories of words: nominals (equivalent to nouns, pronouns, adjectives and some adverbs) and verbals (equivalent to verbs and some adverbs).
+ Cases | ||
Nominative case | -∅ | اوی house |
Genitive case | -ning نینگ | اوینینگ house-GEN of (the) house |
Dative case | -ga گه | اویگه house-DAT to the house |
Definiteness Accusative case | -ni نی | اوینی house-DEF.ACC the house |
Locative case | -da ده | اویده house-LOC in the house |
Ablative case | -dan دن | اویدن house-ABL from the house |
instrumental (literary) | -la له | اویله house-INS with the house |
similative | -day, -dek, -daqa دی، دیک، دقه | اویدی، اویدیک، اویدقه house-SIM like (a) house |
+ Possessive cases | ||
1st | -(i)m ـم، ـیم | -(i)miz ـمیز، ـیمیز |
2nd | -(i)ng ـنگ، ـینگ | -(i)ngiz ـنگیز، ـینگیز |
3rd | -(s)i ـی، ـسی |
+ Non-finite tense suffixes ! Function ! Suffix ! Example |
+ Finite tense suffixes ! Function ! Suffix ! Example |
Third person plural is commonly replaced by third person singular.
In the simple past and conditional tenses, the possessive suffixes are used at the end of the verb. Otherwise, the full pronoun suffix is used, except in the imperative. The third person is usually not marked.
Koʻrmay(man) کورمهی(من) "(I) don't see"
Koʻrmoqchi emas(man) کورماقچی ایمس(من) "(I) don't want to see"
The particle yoʻq ـیوق is used to mark the absence or prohibition of a noun or action.
Chekish mumkin emas چیکیش ممکن ایمس "Smoking is not allowed"
men مین | -man ـمن | I |
biz بیز | -miz ـمیز | we |
sen سین | -san ـسن you (formal singular and informal singular without respect) | |
senlar سینلر | -sanlar سنلر | you (informal plural without respect) |
siz سیز | -siz ـسیز | you (formal plural and informal singular with respect) |
sizlar سیزلر | -sizlar ـسیزلر | you (informal plural with respect) |
u او | -∅ ـ | he/she/it |
ular اولر | -lar ـلر they |
1950: Soviet Era Speakers: Around 7–8 million. The population grew due to natural growth and urbanization under the Soviet Union. Uzbek became one of the officially recognized languages of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Global Rank: Approximately 25–30th place. As a regional language in the USSR, Uzbek gained institutional support in education and media, increasing its influence within Central Asia.
1991: Post-Soviet Independence Speakers: Around 16–20 million. After Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Uzbek was declared the official language of the Republic of Uzbekistan. This led to a revival of Uzbek culture and a shift away from Russian dominance in education and government. Global Rank: Around 20–25th place. With the fall of the USSR, Uzbek gained prominence as a national language, and its number of speakers increased due to population growth.
2024: Current Status Speakers: Estimated 35–40 million. Uzbek is primarily spoken in Uzbekistan but also in neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as by diaspora communities worldwide. Global Rank: 18–20th place. Uzbek is now one of the top 20 most spoken languages globally, thanks to Uzbekistan's large population (over 36 million) and Uzbek-speaking minorities in surrounding countries. It is increasingly recognized on digital platforms, in media, and in academia.
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